August 15, 2021
We Can Do This
August 15, 2021
Yesterday, ADPH performed maintenance on its data dashboard. It’s a good thing, because the totals today could have caused the site to blow up. There were 6,992 new cases reported, utterly demolishing the previous single day record of 5,498 (set on January 5). While today’s total covers both Saturday and Sunday, Sundays are normally light reporting days. The 7-day statewide average is now 3,955 new cases per day, which is 92% of the 7-day record moving average of 4,280 cases per day (set on January 10).
Earlier this week, the State Health Officer, Dr. Harris, forecast that hospitalizations would soon exceed the winter peak. As of today, there are 2,570 confirmed patients in 100 reporting hospitals, or 25.7 patients per hospital. Last January, Alabama hospitals reached 30.3 patients per hospital at their peak, while the peak last summer was 15.8 patients per hospital. Hospital intensive care units were operating at 95% capacity on Wednesday, according to the President of the Alabama Hospital Association, who added that there are currently no ICU beds available in Mobile or Baldwin County or in Montgomery or Dothan.
The Alabama Schools Superintendent announced that the State will begin reporting weekly cases by school district, beginning September 10. Until then, no school-level or district-level data are available, only anecdotal reports. For instance, one Colbert County school elected to close its doors after more than 18% of its students tested positive. After two days of classes, Cullman City Schools notified parents that 50 students had tested positive and the district is considering a mask requirement. On Thursday, Madison County Schools also announced plans to require masks, reversing its prior policy after confirming an outbreak among students and staff.
On Friday, Gov. Kay Ivey issued what she called a “limited, narrowly-focused” state of emergency declaration. Her statement to the press seemingly placed more emphasis on what it is not (“absolutely no statewide mandates, closures or the like”) than what it is - that is, an order permitting out-of-state doctors and nurses to come to our aid and allowing hospitals to expand in order to free up bed space for Covid patients. The order allows hospitals to adopt alternative standards of care because the coming explosion of new cases “could overwhelm the healthcare facilities and personnel of this State and undermine their ability to deliver care in the traditional and customary manner.”
As the Delta variant takes hold, it often feels like we are fighting the virus with one hand tied behind our backs. Vaccines are unquestionably the first and best line of defense, yet 2 million of Alabama’s residents who can get the vaccine have not stepped up more than 4 months after life-saving vaccines became widely available. Although Gov. Ivey said she was encouraged by an increase in vaccination rates over the last month, Alabama is still last in the nation with 35.2% of our residents fully vaccinated. Only 25% of our children aged 12-17 have received at least one shot, 49th in the nation.
As Delta infections among the unvaccinated continue to spiral out of control, it seems inevitable that the vaccine resisters will eventually force the hands of employers and others to require vaccinations for employment as well as the customary privileges of a productive life, such as travel, entertainment and education. The pandemic has deprived us of so much: millions of jobs, more than a year of school for tens of millions of children, more than 620,000 American lives. As this preventable Delta wave builds, it feels like we may be losing something else: the belief that we can come together as Americans to solve a problem.
During the last century, the United States of America defeated fascism, rebuilt Europe, conquered polio, landed a man on the moon and ended the Cold War. We can do this. We can surely overcome this pandemic, but only if we bother to try. The totals:
8/1 - 1,798
8/2 - 1,705
8/3 - 3,307
8/4 - 3,399
8/5 - 3,817
8/6 - 3,685
8/7 - 3,891
8/9 - 4,877
8/10 - 3,815
8/11 - 3,851
8/12 - 4,167
8/13 - 3,986
8/15 - 6,992